Unwinding Your Anxiety | Dr. Jud Brewer

Jud Brewer (0:00)

So for example, somebody could be sitting in a stoplight, right? 30 seconds of a red light, not a big deal, right? No, if you look around at night, everybody's crotch is glowing blue because they've suddenly, you know, they can't tolerate the distress of sitting in a red light for 30 seconds doing nothing. You know, there was a study in 2014 showing that people would rather shock themselves at a level that is uncomfortable than sit in a room and do nothing.

Michael Gervais (0:27)

Nothing.

Okay, welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm Michael Gervais, and by Trade and Training, I'm a sport and performance psychologist, and I am fortunate to work with some of the most extraordinary thinkers and doers across the planet. And the whole idea behind these conversations behind this podcast is to learn from people, to pull back the curtain, to explore how they've committed to mastering both their craft and their minds.

Our minds are our greatest asset. And if you wanna learn more about how you can train your mind, this is just a quick little reminder right here to check out the online psychological training course that I've created with head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll. You can find all of that information at findingmastery.net forward slash course.

I wanna take a minute here to announce a really exciting event that we have coming up. As you continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of 2024, I wanna pose a question. What are you doing right now to be great with stress? How are you working with stress on your pursuit towards your most important ambitions and goals? And I just wanna get right to the heart of the key elements, one in particular, for what it takes to excel in today's high heat, high stakes world. Because stress is not the problem that we think it is. Stress is a synonym for change. And our ability to be agile with change, that is the real opportunity at hand. So if you're wanting to unlock extraordinary results and sustainable performance in your life, it's not about avoiding or reducing stress. And as simple as that sounds, it's very tricky to do, but it is about fundamentally changing your relationship with it.

And that's why I'm so thrilled to invite you to a special event, it's a free virtual event that we're offering and it's called The Power of Embracing Stress. It's on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. So to sign up, just head over to findingmastery.com/training, whether it's advancing in your career or improving your health or cultivating stronger relationships, I think a new approach to stress can be one of the most powerful unlocks for you in your life. So join us for this free virtual training, The Power of Embracing Stress, on Wednesday, March 6th at 2 p.m. Pacific. Go to findingmastery.com/training to sign up once again. That's findingmastery.com/training. And I'm really excited to see you there.

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Now, this week's conversation is with Dr. Jud Brewer, a New York Times bestselling author, a neuroscientist, an addiction psychiatrist, and flat out a thought leader in the field of habit change. He's also the director of research and innovation at Brown University's mindfulness center, where he also serves as an associate professor. Dr. Jud has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs. And the center of his work is really around habit change, how to create change and how change happens. And then he narrows down into treatments for smoking and emotional eating and anxiety. And you might be familiar with his work from his first appearance on Finding Mastery a few years ago. That was episode 66 It's awesome. I wanna encourage you to check that out as well. And I wanted to have Jud back to discuss his new book and the title of it is Unwinding Anxiety, New Science Shows Us How To Break The Cycles Of Worry And Fear To Heal Your Mind. You can probably imagine where this conversation is headed. We dive deep into some of his new findings around how to work with anxiety in any walk of life. So with that, let's jump right into this week's conversation with Jud Brewer.